Coffee growers are anticipating tough days ahead in view of the decrease in rainfall this year. While the growers are expecting a dip in coffee production by over 30 per cent, officers have put the figure at around 8 per cent. The dip in rainfall has affected pepper, a major source of income for the growers, as well. The growers are finding it difficult to provide water for the coffee plants, at the time when it is necessary.
“We were expecting good rains in the beginning of November. Last year, we had good rainfall. As there are no rains this time, coffee beans do not get weight; so is the case with pepper”, said U.M. Thirthamallesh, a coffee grower and general secretary of Karnataka Growers’ Federation (KGF). Many growers are looking for alternative options to get water. A few are sinking new borewells, while some are tapping water from nearby water bodies. Recently Coffee Board officers collected data about the impact of low rainfall on coffee.
Chikkamagaluru, Hassan and Kodagu are coffee growing areas of Karnataka. These three districts recorded below-normal rainfall this year. According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, the cumulative rainfall pattern this year (from January 1 to November 7) in all these three districts has been below normal. The departure from normal in Hassan district is about -29 per cent, Chikkamagaluru -32 per ceny and in Kodagu tands at -38 per cent.
Production
The decrease in rainfall is expected to affect coffee production this year. T.C. Hemanth Kumar, Joint Director of Coffee Board, told The Hindu on Monday, “The board has estimated production of 2.29 lakh tonnes of coffee this year. It includes 1.55 lakh tonnes of Robusta and 74.5 lakh tonnes of Arabica. This is about 8 per cent less than last year’s production. Last year we had a bumper crop, while the current year is an off-year.”
Not only coffee growers, coconut plantations and paddy fields are also badly hit. A few coconut growers have cut trees as the yield has decreased abysmally. “All these days, we were reading newspaper reports about coconut trees being cut in dry land areas like Arsikere or Tiptur. Now we are facing the same situation”, said Manjunath, a farmer at Abbana in Alur taluk.
